


Like Death Warmed Over

by HighlyOpinionatedNerd



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Hope you like it!, Tim and Jason's first real introduction I mean, a reunion fic, directly after Jason is resurrected, getting to know each other as people rather than just heroes, it's just how I WISH it would have happened, talking instead of fighting, this is totally un-canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-18 12:58:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16118966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HighlyOpinionatedNerd/pseuds/HighlyOpinionatedNerd
Summary: The story of how Tim Drake met a man named Jason Todd; a man who surprised everyone by climbing out of his own grave.





	Like Death Warmed Over

The first thing Jason became aware of as he slowly regained consciousness, was pain. His head hurt. Also his side and his left knee and his right wrist. Most of him hurt, actually. There was more of him that hurt than there was that didn’t.

The second thing he became aware of, was the fact that he was actually regaining consciousness. He was waking up. Which was...odd? He couldn’t quite remember why he thought that, though.

He couldn’t remember anything, actually. He didn’t know where he was, or how he’d got there.

He kept his eyes shut tight, even though he was pretty much fully awake now, trying not to panic. Even though waking up in a strange place with no memory of getting there was probably strong grounds for panicking, it wouldn’t do him any good. He had to stay calm.

He took a deep breath, and opened his eyes.

He was in Wayne Manor. Not a room he was immediately familiar with, but immediately recognizable by the old wooden paneling where the walls met the ceiling. He used to stare up at that same wooden paneling every night before going to bed. He’d have known it anywhere.

There was a window somewhere along the wall behind his head. Judging by the light in the room it was probably late afternoon, or thereabouts. One door, off to the right, through which a couple of quiet voices could be heard.

His crime fighter’s instincts were starting to kick in, he realized. The instincts that Bruce had worked so hard to instill in him. Analyze the situation, identify any possible exits, determine the number of potential enemies. Some things never changed.

“Are you awake?” asked a voice from the general area to his left. He was still too foggy to pinpoint the location exactly.

He turned his head to the side and immediately regretted it. That hurt. It felt like someone was stabbing needles at him from inside his own skull. Or, like there was a swarm of bees trapped behind his eyelids. Like he would really rather still be asleep, either way.

“Take it easy. You got banged up pretty badly. And you’re on, like, a lot of drugs right now.”

Jason squinted a little, through the pain and the bright sunlight. There was a boy sitting in a chair next to the bed. A boy with dark, floppy hair and pale skin, wearing a Gotham Knights t-shirt and a concerned expression.

“I’m fine,” he said. But his voice didn’t come out sounding like it usually did. It was rough, and harsh, and very unconvincing.

“No need to rush, tough guy. Go slow.”

“Shut up. Don’t tell me what to do.”

Jason tried to sit up. It didn’t work. He tried again, and this time he made it most of the way into an upright position, slouching against the wall behind him for support.

“Suit yourself, then.”

Jason blinked a few times, trying to focus on one thing at a time. A little trick he’d picked up the first time a street thug had hit him in the head with a baseball bat and given him a concussion- it helped him figure out exactly how much of his brain was still functioning.

The blanket on the bed was white, with little yellow flowers on it. The boy’s shirt had a coffee stain on it, low on the left side. There was a ceiling fan above them, but it didn’t look like it had been used in a very long time, judging from the thick layer of dust on the blades. There was one of those round hospital things on his temple-a diode, that’s what those were called- and it was connected to a little machine next to the bed, with flashing blue lights and some incomprehensible numbers on a screen.

“Wait. Doesn’t that...isn’t that thing supposed to make a noise when I wake up?”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, it is.”

“It like...beeps.”

“It does.”

“It’s not beeping.”

“Nope. I turned it off.”

Jason frowned at the boy. There was no switch on the machine. You couldn’t just turn it off. Could you?

“I know you. Don’t I?”

“Yes. I’m...I’m the new Robin.”

“Oh. Oh, yeah.”

It was starting to come back to Jason now. The new Robin. The reason there was a new Robin in the first place. Why he had had the feeling that it was odd for him to be waking up.

He groaned and gingerly lifted a hand to rub at his eyes. His head really, really hurt.

“Are you ok?”

“Fine.”

“I can go get-”

“I said I’m fine. How did you turn it off?”

“What?”

“The beepy machine. How did you turn it off?”

“Oh. With this.”

He held up a tablet, showing Jason where it was plugged into the machine. There were lines and lines of text on the screen, none of it readable to Jason in his present state.

“Why?”

“Because I wanted to talk to you, before any of the others. If that’s ok, I mean.”

“Yeah, but _why_.”

“Look man, I don’t know how to deal with this situation. There’s no precedent for this. I just thought we should talk.”

Jason snorted, shaking his head. “It’s messed up alright. You’re right about that. You got a name, New Robin?”

“Tim Drake.”

“So talk, Tim Drake. Not like I’m in a position to get up and walk away, anyhow.”

“I think I owe you an apology.”

Tim kept his gaze down, not making eye contact with Jason. His eyes were bloodshot, with the beginnings of dark shadows forming under them. As if he hadn’t slept the previous night.

“About the whole Robin thing,” Jason guessed.

“It’s my fault. Don’t blame Bruce, blame me.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. Bruce didn’t set out to replace you, if that’s what you were thinking. I blackmailed him into taking me on as Robin.”

“You can’t _blackmail_ Batman.”

“You can if you know his secret identity.”

Jason stared incredulously at Tim for a moment. “You did not.”

“I really did, yeah. Sorry.”

“But how? How the hell did you figure it out?”

“Couple of simple algorithms to start off with, narrow down the possibilities. Then you just have to do a little digging on whoever’s left. Well, I actually started with Nightwing. But once you’ve got Dick it’s easy to make the connection to Bruce.”

Jason started to laugh. It made his side hurt worse, but he couldn’t help himself. He laughed until he was gasping for air and Tim was looking at him like he thought he might be crazier than he’d originally thought.

“Fuck, I would have loved to have seen his face,” Jason said, when he could speak coherently again. “Holy shit dude, you’ve got some balls.”

Tim raised his eyebrows. “Wow. If Bruce ever heard me talking like that I think he’d ground me from patrols for like, a month.”

“He doesn’t own you, Tim Drake. Don’t let him make you think that, ever.”

“You believe me, then?”

“Yeah. I mean, you turned the beepy machine off, so I was thinking that computers were probably your deal, anyway.”

“You don’t actually know what this thing is called, do you.”

“Shut up. I just came back from the dead, for fuck’s sake. Cut me some slack.”

“Ok. So...are we, like, cool?”

“About what, you being Robin? Yeah, I think we’re cool. I don’t want it back, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“You don’t?”

“Nope.”

Jason’s head was clearer now, starting to feel more like himself. But the more he remembered, the less he was just happy to be alive, and the angrier he was at what had been done to him. What had been taken from him.

“Just because we’re cool doesn’t mean I’m not pissed at Bruce. And Joker. He’s still out there, and Bruce is not going to be the one to take him out.”

“You don’t know-”

“I do know that. I know him, Tim. I know what he’s like. And I know what Joker’s like. It’s going to take more than batarangs to bring him down.”

“So, what are you going to do then? It’s not like you can just run around with a gun, waiting for him to show up.”

“Watch me.”

Tim shook his head. “Man, you’re nuts. I’ve heard the others talk about you a lot, but…”

“Living up to expectations has never been my strong suit.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s fine. Speaking of the others, uh…what are the chances of you letting me escape out that window without them knowing?”

“You don’t want to see them?”

“I just woke up from being _dead_ , dude. And I probably look like it. Is it too much to ask for some time to like, process stuff?”

Tim smiled. The first time Jason had seen him do so. “I don’t know, man. Dick was _crying_.”

“Well, shit.” Jason sighed and rolled his eyes. “Alright, fine. Go ahead and turn the beepy machine back on, if that’s what you’re gonna do.”

“Ok, here we go.”

Tim hit a button on his tablet, and after a moment a high-pitched tone sounded from the machine. One of the little blue lights changed to green.

After another moment, Dick came skidding through the open doorway, closely followed by Barbara and Alfred.

“Jason!”

“Hey, guys.”

“Jason, oh my god, it’s so good to see you-”

“Master Todd, thank heavens you’re alright-”

“Jay, I can’t believe you’re-”

“Alright, alright, could you guys stop yelling? I’ve got a headache, here!”

Tim stood up and moved out of the way as Dick, already crying again, flung himself at Jason despite his protests, hugging him tightly. Barbara busied herself checking his vital signs and Alfred hovered in the background, asking if he could bring Jason anything.

It was a heartwarming scene, in its own way. But it was one that Tim didn’t really have a part in.

He quietly left the room, leaving the others to their reunion.

The living room felt strangely large and cold after sitting in the well-lit little guest bedroom for so long. Tim sat down on the couch and rubbed his eyes. It was starting to get late. He had homework to do, and training. In fact, he should already be getting ready for night patrols, really. But he didn’t think he could muster the energy to do any of that. He was exhausted.

“Tim.”

He looked up, and Bruce was in the doorway, still in his black suit after a day at Wayne Enterprises.

“Is he awake?”

“Yes. The others are in there with him now.”

“Good, that’s good.”

Bruce scratched the back of his head absently, staring apprehensively towards the guestroom. Tim was admittedly still learning to decipher Bruce’s emotions, but even he could see how torn he was.

“He’s mad at you.”

“I’m sure he is. He probably has a right to be.”

“You should probably talk to him, though. Before he does something crazy.”

Bruce sighed, finally reaching a decision and moving over to sit on the couch next to Tim. “Later. He needs time.”

“Have you found out anything about what actually happened? How he just...came back?”

“Not much, I’m afraid. I’m not sure I even want to think about it.”

Tim nodded. He remembered how broken up Bruce had been about Jason’s death, back when they’d first met, and the wounds were still relatively new.

“We should just be happy to have him back, I guess.”

“We should. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not eventually going to get to the bottom of this.” Bruce leaned back, letting out another long, slow sigh. “So. You met him, huh?”

“I did. He’s an interesting person.”

“That he is.”

They lapsed into silence for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts.

“I should go,” Tim said finally. “I have to get ready for patrol.”

“No, don’t worry about that.”

“Huh?”

“No patrol tonight. You need your rest, Tim. The criminals will still be there waiting for us tomorrow.”

“But...but what if something happens, and-”

“If anything happens, I’ll take full responsibility. And we’ll deal with it then. For now, sleep.”

Tim hesitated, but then nodded. He was tired. Sleep did sound nice.

“Ok. I’ll be in my room.”

“Ok. Goodnight, Tim.”

“Goodnight, Bruce. And thank you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I really don't know what possessed me to write this, but I am glad I did. I don't think you ever truly understand a character until you write from their perspective, and I've never written either Jay or Tim before, so it was a fun little experiment!
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
